Prayer to Our Lady of Perpetual Help
SYMBOLS
[℣] Leader [℟] Response [Ⱥ] All together
SIGN OF THE CROSS
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Mention your petition here. Confidently ask for all the help you need
Mother of Perpetual Help, you who are blessed and favored by God, listen to my prayer. You who are the Mother of the Redeemer, as well as the Mother of the redeemed, intercede for me.
Dearest Mother, I come to you today as your loving child. Watch over me and take care of me always, especially during this difficult time. As you held the Child Jesus in your loving arms, so take me in your arms. Be my Mother ready at every moment to help me. For God who is mighty has done great things for you, and God’s mercy is from age to age on those who love God. Also intercede for me, dear Mother in obtaining pardon for my sins, to increase my desire to love Jesus, and for the grace of final perseverance. Let my love for you always prompt me to call upon you, O Mother of Perpetual Help. Amen.
LORD’S PRAYER
[℣] Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your WILL be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. [℟] Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
HAIL MARY (3x)
[℣] Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. [℟] Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.
GLORIA
[℣] Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. [℟] As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
[℣] May the divine assistance remain always with us, [℟] and may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
SIGN OF THE CROSS
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
The devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help (also known as Our Mother of Perpetual Succour or Our Lady of Perpetual Succor) centers on a famous 15th-century Byzantine icon of the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus.
This title emphasizes Mary’s role as a constant source of help and intercession, particularly in times of distress or need.
The devotion is strongly associated with the Redemptorist order (Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer) and has spread worldwide through their missions, featuring weekly novenas, processions, and reported miracles.
The icon is a Cretan-school Byzantine work, likely painted between roughly 1325 and 1480 (confirmed by carbon-14 dating on the walnut wood panel). It belongs to the “Virgin of the Passion” (Amolyntos) style, showing Mary in a dark red robe (Byzantine imperial color) gazing compassionately at the viewer while pointing to her Son.
The frightened Child Jesus clings to her, with one sandal dangling from his foot; two angels (St. Michael and St. Gabriel) hold the instruments of the Passion (cross, nails, lance, and sponge).
Greek inscriptions identify the figures (eg, MP ΘΥ for “Mother of God” and IC XC for “Jesus Christ”). Art historians often attribute it to a Cretan painter like Andreas Rizo de Candia.
While pious legends sometimes link it to earlier figures like St. Luke or a specific Cretan monastery (Keras Kardiotissas or Kardiotissa), historical records begin in the late 15th century. READ MORE…